A Minimovie is an episodic documentary consisting of a series of 8 to 10 episodes of 3 to 7 minutes each. Put together, the episodes form a self-contained story.

about

Format

A MiniMovie is an episodic documentary consisting of a series of 8 to 10 episodes of 3 to 7 minutes each. Put together, the episodes form a self-contained story.

Context

Together with VPRO Submarinechannel is researching and discovering new ways of producing documentaries. We were just thinking about how the documentary will evolve, what with all the changes in modern day media landscape. The emergence of phenomena such as Youtube, and new, mobile platforms like PSP and of course mobile phones has changed the way we will look at documentaries, just as television did, way back.

Challenge

The research into these new ways of producing and viewing documentaries will focus on every aspect in the making of our films. Designs, set-up, length, rhythm, production style, costs, aesthetics, publicity and flexibility will all be re-visited and revised. Of course, we also really want to challenge the makers of these doc’s. Trying new things leads to interesting outcomes! And we want to be the first ones to run such a rad project and pave the way for others with brilliant ideas.

Subjects

All ideas produced are specifically conjured up for this particular format and subjected to smaller budgets. But we made a conscious decision not to lay down the topics too stringently, because we want the makers to be able to spontaneously react to any situation. This fits well within the MiniMovie world. The link that ties in all the different documentaries is the generally idea to make a MOVIE. Every documentary we make is essentially cinematic, but they don’t need to be done in the classical documentary style.

Distribution

Media has changed a lot over the years. Youtube and online channels now provide the world with many outlets. These new forms of media forced us into thinking about new forms of distribution as well. Hence, the MiniMovies and the online system of getting them out there. We get it to you, via as many outlets as possible, and you can choose, when, how or what you want to see. Makes sense, doesn’t it.

Success

The success of our first MiniMovie, Molotov Alva and his search for the creator: A second Life Odyssey, really demonstrates that our new approach is working. This integrated method seems to be effective. The first episode of Molotov Alva, the first documentary every to be completely filmed in Second Life, was an instant success on Youtube. To this date it has generated about half a million hits. Thanks to it’s success Molotov Alva caught the attention of some hot shot American broadcast channels, one of which was HBO. Eventually it was sold and with that it proves that documentaries with (niche) subjects, in this case the virtual world, can reach potentially huge, global audiences online. As if you didn’t know that already.

Minimovies is aSubmarinechannel production - 2007

Download

You can watch the Minimovies here or simply download them to your digital device of choice.